Having seen this when it first aired a few years after seeing the original 1959 version, I rediscovered this recently, having also seen Melissa Gilbert's TV version of "The Miracle Worker". The characters of Helen Keller and Anne Frank, both real life young heroines that had plays written about them, are quite memorable for any young actress, and for Melissa Gilbert, I can easily understand the desire to play both, and she is quite impressive. While not 100% perfect casting to play a young Jewish girl, Gilbert does not retain any of her Laura Ingalls personality and look, and grew on me as my repeat viewing went on.
As Anne is the title character, she will be the center of attention and will get the focus, but it is the character of Anne's father, Otto Frank, who will be the heart and soul of the film because of his Devotion to keeping his family safe and the fact that he will be the one to survive to bring her diary to the attention of the world. Maximilian Schell, who won an Oscar for playing the defense attorney in the classic "Judgment at Nuremberg", is quite commanding and very touching, soft spoken but wise and brave. There's little for Joan Plowright to send her teeth into as her character is rather one note, but she does what she can with the part.
Once again, there's good work by the actors playing the Van Daan's, with Doris Roberts stealing every moment as the very dimensional Mrs. Van Daan, and a very different James Coco giving a very dramatic performance with none of his comical talents in evidence as her husband. The film is greatly abbreviated, shorter by more than half an hour than the original film, so it is more intimate and more character driven, faster moving so it does miss a lot of those emotional pauses that made the original great. As this was for TV, it would have had to have been shown in two nights with the original length if fully based on the original play. But what is here really works and if not perfect, the film is a good representation of the original material if not an excellent one.
As Anne is the title character, she will be the center of attention and will get the focus, but it is the character of Anne's father, Otto Frank, who will be the heart and soul of the film because of his Devotion to keeping his family safe and the fact that he will be the one to survive to bring her diary to the attention of the world. Maximilian Schell, who won an Oscar for playing the defense attorney in the classic "Judgment at Nuremberg", is quite commanding and very touching, soft spoken but wise and brave. There's little for Joan Plowright to send her teeth into as her character is rather one note, but she does what she can with the part.
Once again, there's good work by the actors playing the Van Daan's, with Doris Roberts stealing every moment as the very dimensional Mrs. Van Daan, and a very different James Coco giving a very dramatic performance with none of his comical talents in evidence as her husband. The film is greatly abbreviated, shorter by more than half an hour than the original film, so it is more intimate and more character driven, faster moving so it does miss a lot of those emotional pauses that made the original great. As this was for TV, it would have had to have been shown in two nights with the original length if fully based on the original play. But what is here really works and if not perfect, the film is a good representation of the original material if not an excellent one.